Infant Attachment and Executive Function in 4 Year Olds.

• In Event: 3-076 - Attachment and social cognition – a bio-psychological perspective from infancy to early adulthood.

Integrative Statement

This study examines associations between infant attachment and preschool executive function (EF). EF, a set of higher order cognitive processes including impulse control, set-shifting, working memory, planning and organizing, is thought to be a prerequisite for children’s social and academic competence (Blair, 2002). It has been theorized that infant attachment security might play an important role for EF, e.g. by providing emotional security for exploration and learning, and enhancing emotion regulation skills. Although there is some empirical evidence showing that attachment security is associated with better EF, longitudinal studies using observational methods of assessing infant attachment large enough to examine differences between the four traditional attachment classifications are scarce.
Based on attachment theory and findings in other – related – domains of child functioning such as internalizing and externalizing problems (see Fearon et al., 2010 and Groh et al., 2012 for meta-analyses) we hypothesized that infants with avoidant, resistant or disorganized attachment relationships have more EF problems at preschool age than securely attached infants. These hypotheses were tested in a prospective population-based cohort study, one of the largest samples to date with data on infant attachment assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP, Ainsworth et al., 1978). The Strange Situation was conducted with 620 mother-infant dyads when children were 14 months old. Children’s EF was assessed at 4 years with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Funtion – Preschool Version (BRIEF-P, Gioia et al., 2003) filled in by the primary caregiver (mostly the mother).
Initial analyses showed differences in preschool EF between infant-mother attachment classifications (F(3,619) = 4.63, p = .003). Planned contrasts showed that insecure-avoidant children had more EF problems than all other attachment classifications. None of the other contrast were significant. We then examined whether specific subdomains of EF explain these findings. Preliminary analyses showed significant differences between the four attachment classifications in inhibition (F(3,614) = 4.03, p = .007), working memory (F(3,615) = 5.94, p = .001), and planning and organizing (F(3,623) = 4.63, p = .003), but not in shifting and emotional control subdomains. Avoidant children had more problems in these subdomains than all other attachment classifications (see Figure 1).
Findings raise questions with regard to the unitarity of the EF construct and about specific effects of different insecure attachment classifications. Limitations of the analyses so far include the use of maternal self-report measures to assess children’s EF and limited generalizability due to the relatively homogeneous sample that consisted of Caucasian, relatively low-risk mothers. To address these issues, we will follow up these initial analyses and test our findings in another longitudinal cohort study in the Netherlands, which also includes a high-risk group, and in a sample consisting of father-child dyads. Additionally, we will include observational measures of children’s EF that will be available for analysis in the near future.

Authors

• Anne Tharner, Department of Clinical Child and family Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Rianne Kok, Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole Lucassen, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maartje Luijk, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marleen HM De Moor, Child and Family Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mirjam Oosterman, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carlo Schuengel, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Henning Tiemeier, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author